Skewed
by Ethylamine
Summary: This story is about a girl starting at Hogwarts with James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter who all become friends. Things happen along the way, secrets will be shared, pranks will be pulled and friendships will be tested. This is my first fanfic, please review and state anything that I should work on. I know, the summary is terrible. Possible, eventual Remus x OC
1. Chapter 1

I walked slowly down the corridor of the Hogwarts Express, this was my first year attending Hogwarts and all of the compartments that I passed were full. Starting to feel hopeless about getting a place to sit I finally found one that consisted of only four boys, they all looked to be first years too. I knocked on the door as I opened it and the four boys looked at me.

"Erm… You don't mind if I sit with you do you? Everywhere else is full," I said shyly.

"We don't mind," said one of the boys this one had very untidy looking black hair that stuck up everywhere.

"I'm Lena Atria," I said as I sat the closest I could to the compartment door feeling quite uncomfortable.

"I'm James Potter," said the one of the untidy black hair.

"I'm Sirius Black," said the boy sitting next to James, he also had black hair. The way he spoke made me feel like this one was going to be up to no good in no time at all.

"I'm Remus Lupin," the boy sitting across from Sirius quietly said. He seemed to be a little shy and wary of me. This one had brown hair and dark rings under his eyes, he looked as though he hadn't slept in days.

"I'm Peter Pettigrew," said the last boy. He too had brown hair but he seemed to be a little nervous and the look on his face kind of made him look like he was quite possibly stupid.

"What house do you want to be put in?" asked James giving me a kind of look. He made me feel as though this were a test and if I said the wrong house I would fail.

"I want to be put in Gryffindor but I feel like I'm going to be put in Ravenclaw, that's the house that my parents were in," I said and James quit giving me the look and replaced it with a gigantic smile.

"That's great! Gryffindor is where I want to be too!" He proclaimed and the rest all nodded with him.

"We will be arriving at Hogwarts in five minutes," a voice squeaked over the intercom quite some time later. I was feeling great and accepted by the group of boy that I had met, for the first time in my life I felt like I might actually belong! I had spent so much time being the outcast every that I went, even with my own family. Now I just had to get into the same house as at least one of these boys during the sorting.

"I wonder how they sort us," I nervously as the train was slowing to a stop. "What if it's some sort of test we have to pass?"

"It's not a test," said Sirius shortly. "It's with a hat, a hat decides and places you into the house you belong in." We all gave Sirius a sympathetic look, we all knew he didn't want to be placed into Slytherin but it was likely he would be, the rest of his family had been Slytherins.

Five minutes later we were all getting off of the train, it had finally made it's dramatic stop at a platform. A gigantic man was standing with a lantern at the end shouting, "Firs' years over here! Firs' years over here!" We gradually pushed our way through the chaos on the platform and reached him. We must have been the last ones there because shortly after we had reached the big bearded man we were all walking toward the lake where doesn't of rowboats where lined up along the shore.

"We're going to have to split up," said Remus cautiously, "the boats only hold four people." We all looked at each other wondering who would be the first to decide to go with strangers.

"I'll go in a different boat," I muttered, I was used to being the outcast who had to split away from my group. Feeling dejected I walked toward a boat that two other people were boarding.

"Wait! I'll go with you!" Remus called after me, the hurt must have shown on my face before I had turned away from them. Remus had to have been feeling sorry for me, no one else ever seemed to care.

"You don't have to," I told him, not wanting to drag him away from his friends.

"No, I want to go."

"Alright," I said and we climbed into the boat with to two other first years. They were both girls in the boat with us. One of them had shoulder length straight black hair that covered their face and the other had straight long red hair and green eyes.

"Hello," said the redhead timidly, "I'm Lily Evans." She reached out a hand to us to shake.

"I'm Lena Atria," I said trying to sound confident in myself instead of nervous. I'm pretty sure that my hand shake with her had betrayed me though because my hand itself was shaking.

"I'm Remus Lupin," Remus said quietly shaking her hand after me, seeming pretty confident.

"I'm Serverus Snape," said the black haired one, that just moments before I was for sure that he was a girl.

Remus must have been thinking the same as me because he said, "Ahh, very nice to meet you Serverus." We sat the rest of the way to the school across the lake in an overwhelmingly awkward silence.

There were a lot of 'Ooos' and 'awws' when the gigantic illuminated castle that must be Hogwarts came into sight. The place was a lot bigger than I had expected it to be.

'How am I ever going to find my way around this place?' I thought looking up at the welcoming castle that stood before us as we walked up the lawn to the castle in groups, we had finally reunited with James, Sirius, and Peter.

Finally, our journey ended in a hall where we were told to wait until a professor came to collect us for the sorting. Everyone was standing and talking nervously with the people next to them. Even when James spoke he seemed to be getting a little nervous.


	2. Chapter 2

"Welcome to Hogwarts! We will begin your sorting momentarily. When I come back out here you will all follow me into the Great Hall and you will all be placed in your proper houses," said an older looking witch with what was a part smile on her face. The witch had a severe looking face, and I guessed that you probably wouldn't want to cross her.

As we waited I could feel everyone getting antsy, we were all hungry and nervous about what would happen. Even though I knew what the sorting consisted of I couldn't help but feel nervous along with everyone else. Looking over at Sirius I knew that he was extremely worried, he kept rocking back and forth on his feet.

"It'll be fine Sirius," I quietly said to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"I know," he whispered, "I know."

Then the same witch from just a few minutes ago came back and we all followed her into the Great Hall which was packed with students. There were so many! Four long tables were lined with students on both sides and they were all staring at us! Feeling nervous, I shifted my robes and made sure they were straight. I didn't want to appear as some sort of a slob in front of all these people.

In the front of the room is where we all stood just ahead of a fifth long table, which was where the staff sat. One member stood out the most against all of them. This person was an elderly looking wizard with a long silvery beard and long silvery hair. He wore half-moon spectacles and had glittery blue eyes. He looked like he was a very kind old man. Seeing him made my nervousness decrease a little.

"Now, when I call your name, you will come up put on this hat and sit on the stool," said the older looking witch gesturing to an old three legged stool with a very ratty looking hat on it. "First is Atria, Lena."

Nervously I stepped out of the line of first years, I hated being first. Being first was the worst thing in the world. I quickly walked over to the stool and put on the hat, just wanting this to be over with quickly. Suddenly I heard a voice talking to my head. 'Am I imagining things?' I thought.

"No, you're not imagining things," said the voice which I realized must be coming from the hat. "Where to put you, where to put you…?" The hat whispered into my head. "You'd do great in Ravenclaw but I sense you do not want to be there. The rest of your family was in Ravenclaw."

'I don't want to be in Ravenclaw,' I thought angrily to the hat.

"You sure? Well then, I'll just have to put you in GRYFFINDOR!" the hat proclaimed. Loud cheers were coming from the table on the far left side. I practically ran down to them, not wanting to be in the spot light too long. Now I would just have to hope that at least one of my new friends would be in the same house as me. Hopefully it would be at least Remus that would join me if no one else. Remus was kind of cute and I felt like we were fairly similar and could make great friends.

"Black, Sirius," announced the witch. Sirius walked out of the line of first years, he looked fearful. I knew what he was dreading, he didn't want to be in Slytherin. I crossed my fingers and hoped for him to be put in Gryffindor.

Sirius sat on the stool for about a minute before the hat finally proclaimed "GRYFFINDOR!" to the school. Sirius look to be ecstatic that he would be joining into the ranks of the Gryffindor students.

"Sirius!" I shouted as a clapped for him. He came running over and sat next to me at the table. Now we just had to wait to see where Remus and James were going to be put. Meanwhile Lily Evans got put in Gryffindor with us and her black haired female looking companion was placed in Slytherin. Finally Remus, James, and Peter were placed at the Gryffindor table. What luck for me to have all of my new friends in the same house!

"We did it!" James cheered high fiving all of us.

"We did!" the rest of us cheered along, most loudly Sirius.

Then the sorting was over and the silver haired man stood up and began to speak, I had found out from the older students who he was, he was the headmaster Professor Dumbledoor. He was one of the greatest wizards of all time. I felt slightly disappointed that I hadn't recognized him earlier.

"I have an announcement to make before we start to feast. No one is allowed in the Forbidden Forest on the edge of the grounds," he explained to all of the students. "Now, let the feast begin!" As he said this food magically appeared on all of the tables in front of us. There were roasts, steaks, pork chops, and chicken breasts! We all ate until we were full and then some too because after the main course was over there was desert! There were puddings of every flavor, tarts, and cakes!

After we were all stuffed we finally got to go up to our common rooms. Ours was up a tower and past hidden tapestries. I started to feel very lost and disoriented, I would never find my way around this place. We finally stopped in front of a large painting featuring a fat lady in a pink dress. "Password?" she asked.

"Dungbombs!" shouted a prefect up front so everyone could hear what the password was. The painting swung open and admitted everyone inside.

"Goodnight!" I called to James, Remus, Peter, and Sirius sleepily. I trudged up the stairs to the first years' girls' dorm after Lily. I found my bed and my trunk at the far side of the room next to a window. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.


	3. Chapter 3

I woke up quite early the next morning because of a horrendous dream, my body was sticky with sweat. I tried to remember what it was and gave up because all that was coming across from my mind was a fuzzy noise. I instead got up and decided that I was going to go and take a hot shower to wake myself up more. Everyone else was sleeping so I crept on cats' feet to the door of the dormitory and quietly left.

I came out of the bathroom about ten minutes later and looked out the window, I could see the sun peaking above the horizon in a haze of red and orange. It was probably one of the most beautiful things I've seen. I decided to take a seat in one of the soft red armchairs that was near to the window. I liked the silence that was filling the room. Silence was one of the things that I rarely got at home, my little sister who was only 8 was very noisy, even when she slept! This was very relaxing and it remained that way until about 10 minutes after I sat down I heard a creak at the top of the stairs to the boys' dormitories. It was Remus.

"Good morning Lena," he yawned walking across the common room to sit in a squashy yellow armchair across from me. "Why are you up so early?"

"I couldn't sleep, I was too excited to start today," I lied, I didn't want to have to try to explain my dream to him that had woken me up so suddenly. "Now, why are you up so early?"

"I like mornings," Remus whispered softly, looking out the window at the rising sun. That's when I noticed his eyes where a marvelous blue. His gaze shifted over to me, "Want to go down to breakfast?" he asked.

"I'd love to go down to breakfast!" I said as my stomach growled slightly. We made our way across the common room floor and out through the portrait hole. As we left I could hear people starting to stir in their dorms and footsteps crossing the floor. "I hope we don't get lost," I muttered before we turned into the first corridor.

"I hope we don't either!" he agreed. "I think this way looks right," he said poking his head around a corner.

"Well then move it," I said, giving him a slight shove out into the hall.

Along the way there we passed by numerous moving portraits of people, suits of armor, and statues of people. Finally after about a half hour of wandering I swore that we had passed by the same statue twice.

"Didn't we already go by this statue?" I asked gesturing to a statue that appeared to be a witch with a fruit basket.

"I don't think so," said Remus scratching the side of his head as he examined the statue. "Or… maybe we did…" Remus looked closer at the statue. "I think we're lost!" he finally proclaimed.

"Seriously!? I thought you knew where we were going!" I shouted.

"Hey! Don't say that! I was following you!"

"Okay, well… Let's try going this way," I said pointing to a corridor going left.

"Alright. It's not like we can get any more lost," Remus sighed and rolled his eyes.

About ten minutes later we finally reached a staircase.

"We're on the seventh floor!" Remus exclaimed looking downward and counting the floors.

"How did we get up here? We're higher than where we started from!" I cried.

"Well, if we try going downward we might run into the Great Hall. I think it's just down these seven flights of stairs," said Remus as I gave him a horrific look. "Hey, just be glad we're not going up seven flights."

After our long descent of the seven flights of stairs we finally reached the Great Hall. I had never been happier in my life. I thought we were going to be forever lost in the enormous castle.

"What were you two up do?" questioned Sirius with a mischievous look on his face.

"We got lost," I replied.

"You sure you two weren't up to some smoocie smoocie in the corridors?" laughed James.

"The only one who will be smoocie smoocieing with anything will be you with the floor," I growled shoving toast in my mouth.

"What time is it James?" Remus asked while pouring some orange juice.

"It is… eight thirty," answered James.

"Wow! We were wandering lost upstairs for about an hour and a half!" I said snorting into my apple juice. I didn't think that we were wandering for that long at the most I had thought it was only forty-five minutes.

Suddenly the hall was filled with owls of all sorts. There were barn owls, snowy owls, eagle owls, great horned owls, and other kinds that I did not know the names of. Everyone got an owl, they were carrying our schedules. I tore mine open excited to see what the first class was going to be.

"Charms!" I gleefully shouted. "We have charms first!" I did a little bit of a happy dance in my seat. Charms was the class that I was the most excited to take.

"Not so fast," muttered James, "after that we have Potions with the Slytherins."

"Oh nooooo," Sirius groaned.

"It probably won't be that bad," mumbled Remus.

"You don't know Slytherins," growled Sirius, "they are all horrible. They will go out of the way just to hurt someone's feelings.

"Guys! We only have ten minutes to find our first class!" exclaimed Peter looking at his watch worriedly.

"Oh no! I'm not even sure where this class is at!" I cried. "Do any of you?"

"I think that it's on the second floor," said James as we all grabbed our stuff and ran for it.

We were all breathless after running at full speed up two whole flights of stairs. Luckily the classroom was just around the first corner. We breathlessly walked into the classroom and still ended up being about ten minutes late. Everyone in the class turned to look at us as we walked through the door. It was the most dreadful feeling ever, even the tiny professor was giving us an annoyed look.

"You're late," the professor squeaked at us.

"We're sorry," the five of us mumbled in shame and in unison. We all bowed our heads and took the only empty seats that were at the front of the classroom. What a horrible way to start off the first day of schooling. I felt as though I could cry, I hated starting off on the wrong foot with people, especially with professors. I felt a cold gloominess as I realized that I would probably be having the two horrible classes right after each other. I didn't want to see the Slytherins and I could no longer be optimistic about them. "This sucks," I muttered under my breath and James gave me a sympathetic look.


	4. Chapter 4

That first class of Charms just dragged on for what seemed like an eternity, I hadn't felt more embarrassed in my life than what I was feeling now. 'Great, late for the first class of my first day here. I must look like such an idiot,' I thought to myself. I could feel tears starting to burn in my eyes and willed myself not to actually cry until I got out of the room. Luckily, I managed to hold my tears back until the end of class.

"That was horrible," I proclaimed to my four friends. "I've never felt stupider in my life."

"It wasn't that bad," said James, "The teacher seems like a really nice guy. I'm pretty sure he will forgive us."

"But that's not the problem! The problem is that we made ourselves look like idiots in front of the people in our year! They probably think that we're stupid or something for walking into class late," I said, starting to feel the burn of tears in my eyes again.

"Lena," Remus said, clapping me on the shoulder, "we'll be fine! They won't think that we are idiots for very long, we just have to get to all our classes on time and answer a few questions and everything will be fine! Although, that was a terrible way to start off our first day."

"Come on!" Sirius groaned, "It wasn't that bad! We were what… 5 minutes late?"

"Ten!" I cried.

"Fine, ten minutes late. Not that bad. It could have been a lot worse…" Sirius continued. "Now, how do we get down to the dungeons? We have twenty minutes to find it."

"Well, we start by going downward," said James gesturing to a flight of stairs going down.

"Alright then!" said Sirius with a grin and we all followed Sirius and James as they lead the way down to the dungeons. They obviously didn't seem downcast at all about our terrible start to the first day of school. Instead, they seemed to radiate confidence which helped my mood a little bit and I could see that Remus was feeling a little better about it too.

All in all, we were standing waiting in front of the door to the Potions class room with five minutes to spare. We were not the first ones down there but we certainly were not the last ones to get there, there were only about ten people waiting down there and within the last five minutes before the bell rang about fifteen more people arrived.

Among the people to arrive I saw Lily walking along with the greasy female looking black haired kid whose name I couldn't remember.

"Hello there Lily!" I proclaimed upon seeing her. "And hello… erm… Snivellus?" I said with uncertainty.

"It's Serverus," said Snivellous and at this James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter gave a little bit of a laugh, James and Sirius were the loudest of them.

"Sorry," I muttered turning away from him and an annoyed Lily. "Not. Funny." I growled at the four boys behind me. This was the second embarrassing thing that I've done today, 'Is this all that today is going to be?' I thought feeling exasperated. 'Why can't I get anything right?'

The next moment the door to the room opened and we were greeted by a middle aged brown haired wizard. "Take your seats," he said in a cheerful voice. "I am Professor Slughorn," he said after we all took our seats. Sirius, James, Remus, Peter, and I all took seats along the back row of the classroom. I sat in between James and Remus, Sirius was sitting on the other side of James. Peter had to sit at the table next to ours.

"Today you will all be making a potion to cure boils," said the professor. He waved his wand once and the instructions appeared on the board behind him.

"Ooh! This will be easy!" I exclaimed in a hushed voice.

"What do you mean by this will be easy?" croaked Peter at the next table, he had apparently heard me.

"You'll see," I muttered to him, starting to work on brewing the potion.

The class came to an end rather quickly, or that's what it seemed like.

"Alright, put some of your potion in a vial and put it on my desk," said Slughorn cheerily. "You're potions should be light green in color… Much like Miss Atria's over here!"

I could feel my cheeks warm up as he said this, I had done something right for once!

'Maybe this day won't be so bad,' I thought, smiling as I put my labeled vial along with everyone else's on Slughorn's desk and we all started to leave the room together.

"That's really amazing what you did Lena!" said Peter with an amazed look on his face, "Mine was a turquois color.

"Thank you Peter!" I said grinning. I was starting to feel more and more confident with myself as we walked up to the Gryffindor Tower to deposit our bags before lunch in the Great Hall.

"What do we have next?" asked James through a mouthful of food.

"Umm… We have Transfiguration next," said Remus after looking down at his schedule. "It's with the Hufflepuff."

"Oh boy! That ought to be fun!" I proclaimed feeling optimistic once again.

"Stop being so optimistic, please!" growled Sirius, who clearly wasn't having a good day. Seeing the Slytherins seemed to have affected him in a bad way.

"I'm sorry I bothered you with my optimism," I teased, lightly punching Sirius in the arm. In return Sirius glared back at me and I determinedly glared back at him.

"Umm… Maybe we should try to find the transfiguration room," said Remus, breaking the silence. "I don't want to be late for another class today."

"Alright, let's go," muttered Sirius, breaking the eye contact first.

"Ha! I won!" I proclaimed, getting up from my place at the table. Soon we were out of the Great Hall and James and Sirius were leading the way to transfiguration. Remus, Peter, and I trailed along behind them.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry it has been so long since I've updated. I've been really busy lately. I hope that you like the new chapter!**

"Whoo! I think we found the room!" I proclaimed as we reached a door with a wooden sign by it that kept turning from a sign into a toad and back again.

"Are you sure?" asked Peter, eying the sign nervously. "It could just be a ghost haunting it."

"Yes, I'm sure it's not a ghost haunting the sign," I replied, rolling my eyes.

"Come on Peter, ghosts don't do that kind of thing," said Remus with a smile.

"B-b-but bogarts do!" whimpered Peter.

"Come on Peter, you can't possibly be most afraid of a wooden sign turning back and forth into a toad," muttered James.

"N-n-no, but how do I know that one of you isn't afraid of that?"

"I'm pretty sure we all swear that we aren't afraid of a wooden sign or toads," muttered Sirius, shoving Peter into the room. "See. All's good," said Sirius as we stepped into the large room. It had a high ceiling and not as many animals in it as you'd think. There was only one covered cage in a corner of the room. The cage was making small rattling noises that foretold of something being kept in it. Otherwise the room was deserted.

"W-why is no one here?" asked Peter. Clearly he was starting to lose it.

"Well, we are here quite early," I said.

"Only twenty minutes early," Sirius said. "Who's bright idea was it again to come up here this early?"

"It was mine," mumbled Remus. "I had no idea how long it would take us to find this place."

"Oh… yeah," muttered Sirius, searching for something that he might be able to call Peter out on. Peter's little freak out session had annoyed him and Sirius already wasn't in a good mood.

Twenty minutes later the bell rang and Sirius still hadn't gotten all of his anger out and was now sitting next to me towards the end of the table. About twenty to thirty more people and entered the room and at some point, so did a cat which was now sitting on the teacher's desk.

"Sirius," I whispered, "chill. Everyone can see that annoyed look you have on your face."

"Well sorry!" he snapped. A few heads turned to look around at who was talking.

"I didn't mean it as anything," I whispered, trying to get Sirius to catch on and lower his voice a little. The teacher wasn't there yet and I didn't know how much longer we would be without.

Slowly the class erupted into chaos. Or maybe quickly it did. Students were starting to speculate about where the teacher was when seemingly out of thing air appeared an older looking woman with spectacles.

"Where did she come from!?" asked one bewildered student.

"Where's the cat?" wondered another.

"Class!" said the woman in a stern sounding voice. Her voice actually went with her face, she had a stern looking face. The face of someone you wouldn't want to make cross. "I am your professor, Professor McGonagall. You may have noticed that I just appeared here or you may not of considering some of your attention spans. Either way, I used a sort of transformation where I transfigured from a cat into a human. Any questions? No? Good, let's get on with our first lesson." Said Professor McGonagall, uncovering the cage. "Today we will turn rats into cups. Now everyone take a rat."

Ten minutes later everyone had a rat and was starting to practice the spell. No one had made any changes to their rat. Until I muttered the spell just right. Slowly a change was occurring.

"Remus! Look something is happening!" I whispered excitedly to my friend as I watched the transformation unfold.

"Isn't it supposed to be faster than that?" pondered Remus.

"I think so but let's see what happens." By now Sirius and James had turned to watch. Slowly, the rat was getting fatter. And it got fatter. And fatter.

"Oh no, I do say I think it is going to explode," whispered Remus.

"DUCK AND COVER!" James shouted as we all ducked under the table. With a very loud bang, the rat did explode.

"Oh no!" I cried out as I poked my head above the table. There were at least ten people who had gotten splattered with entrails. One of which just had to be Peter.

"Miss Atria," said Professor McGonagall calmly but with a hint of anger or annoyance, "Would you mind telling me what you just did." The question was more of a command.

"Umm… I don't know! I was practicing the spell and then the rat started growing bigger and fatter and then it just uhh…"

"Exploded everywhere!" said Sirius, starring bewilderedly at the spot where the rat once lived.

"I'm very sorry!" I said in dismay.

"It's alright," sighed the professor as she walked over to the table and muttered the spell that cleaned up the mess. The entrails came off of everything and everyone who had been splattered with them were then unscathed. Well, everyone except Peter.

"I'm sorry Peter," Professor McGonagall said to the now crying boy, "they just won't come off, you're just going to have to go to the hospital wing." She then turned to me, "Lena, since you're the one who did this you can walk him down there. I don't need any more exploding rats in this classroom today."

"Okay Professor McGonagall," I said to her, "Come one Pete." I grabbed the crying boy by the hand and lead him out of the room and into the hall.

Half an hour and a lot of wrong turns later, we met a nice guy in a painting who lead the way down to the hospital wing.

"Thank you good sir!" I cheerily said to the man after he deposited us at our destination.

"You're very welcome ma 'dam!" he replied back with a bow.

"That was one nice painting," I said to Peter who was still icky looking. "I'm really sorry about what happened to you," I apologized. At some point around going around the twentieth wrong corner he had stopped talking to me.

I pushed open the doors to the hospital wing and they opened with a squeak. After taking a few steps into the large room a squat woman appeared.

"What happened to you!" exclaimed the woman.

Peter refused to reply so I replied for him, "I uhh… accidentally blew up a rat when practicing transfiguration. Professor McGonagall tried to remove the entrails from him several times and it just wouldn't work," I said embarrassed about telling the story to another person.

"Oh! This happened a couple years ago. Apparently the spells for blowing up and transforming a rat are very similar," the witch chuckled. "You can go now Miss…?"

"Atria."

"Atria," she repeated. "Just go back to your dormitory, classes will be over shortly for today and I can take care of your friend."

"Thank you and good afternoon," I said as I left. I chuckled a bit after I left. 'What a day!' I though. 'So many odd things.' I smiled as I walked all the way back to the Gryffindor tower, I did not get lost.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Sorry it took so long for me to update this, I've been really busy and have kind of had writers block. I had no clue what I should write next. I hope you enjoy this new chapter! :D Please comment/review! **

Many weeks had passed without many noticeable or exciting things happening. Life at Hogwarts had steadily gotten better as Remus, Peter, Sirius, James, and I learned our way around the large castle. By the time that Thanksgiving had gotten around we considered ourselves to be experts at getting around the castle. Since the next day was Thanksgiving, we didn't have any classes for the next few days.

"So what are your Christmas plans?" Sirius asked, directing the question to all of us at the table. Sirius had a strange look on his face as he asked the question, and we all knew why. Sirius had a sucky home life and his family pretty much hated him for being placed into Gryffindor. The Blacks were a long line of Slytherin blood, and he had tarnished their 'perfect record'.

"Well, I am going to go home!" squeaked out Peter, he was overjoyed at the thought of leaving Hogwarts for a couple of weeks. He was the one of us who would still get himself lost if he wandered the castle alone. That and he wanted to get away from me, he was still pretty bitter about the rat entrails that I had gotten stuck on his face.

"I think that I too am going home for Christmas," said Remus with a sad look on his face, "Sorry." He quickly looked down at the food he was eating for breakfast. At this point Sirius started to look a little crestfallen, he knew that at least half of his friends were going to be gone over the Christmas break.

"I also am going home for Christmas, Sirius," I said. I knew it disappointed him to hear it. Sirius and I had formed a really great bond over the past few weeks, especially over the whole 'Snivelous' thing. Sirius then turned to look at James with a sad look on his face. It was the look of a sad puppy who was begging.

"Don't worry Sirius!" James said whacking Sirius on the back, "I'm staying here! We can do loads of great things over the break!"

"That's great James!" said Sirius, looking a lot happier at the prospect of doing mischievous things with his best friend. Remus and I exchanged a look, we both knew exactly what leaving Sirius and James alone meant, it meant that we would have to be watching out for tricks and booby traps when we got back from our break. Sirius and James being left with a place to themselves always meant that there would be trouble. Usually, it was harmless tricks and stuff but sometimes it would go a little too far. Like the time when they had planted a sticky whoopee cushion on the chair that Peter sits in during Potions class. It was really funny the first time that Peter sat down but after it got stuck to his pants and he couldn't figure out what was making the noise every time he sat down it got a little old.

"Don't do anything too crazy while we're all gone," Remus warned somberly, giving the two boys a look that told them to be good.

"Crazy!? What makes you thing we will do anything crazy?!" James laughed with an odd grin on his face. Sirius laughed along with James, the two were like twins who would take whatever chance they could get to pull a nasty prank on someone.

"Umm… Remember last time?" Remus asked, he was referring to the time where James and Sirius had been looking through an advanced spell book and had tried to make the furniture levitate whenever someone sat on it but instead made it all crumble into dust when someone sneezed. Professor McGonagall was not happy about that time.

"Oh but that was an accident!" Sirius smirked.

"Yeah! Just wait, when you come back from break you'll be jealous that you didn't stay here with us!" said James.

Remus gave them a very serious look, "Just don't do anything too stupid."

"Yeah, don't do anything that will fall back on me! I don't want another whoopee cushion incident," muttered Peter with a glair. He had become very paranoid since that incident. At least four bad things had happened to Peter because of James and Sirius. The other three had involved a sider, a snake, and bubblegum.

"Don't worry Pete, why would we do something to hurt you?" James joked.

"I think we have things to be planning James," Sirius said, getting up from the breakfast table.

"I think you're right Sirius," James replied with a mischievous smirk. "See ya later."

"Why do I feel that I have a lot to worry about?" complained Peter.

"I dunno Pete," I said. "Let's go Remus, we've got Potions to study."

"Alright, are we going to the library?"

"Yeah, the paper is due later this week so I guess we better. Want to come with Pete?" I asked.

"Nah, I'll meet you down there," he mumbled. Remus looked at me and rolled his eyes. We both knew that Peter would ultimately get lost on the way down there and we would run into him crying his eyes out on the way back to the Gryffindor tower.

"See you later then Peter," Remus said as we both walked away from the depressed seeming child.

"I think it's your turn to console him this time," Remus joked after we got out of earshot of Peter.

"No way! I did it last time!"

"But you're so good at it," he joked. We both walked off wondering where we could find Peter cowering this time and hoping that this time he would surprise us by not getting lost even though the chances of that happening were very slim.


	7. Chapter 7

Remus and I spent hours in the library that day and when we had finished our papers for Potions we went back up to the Gryffindor tower. Not surprisingly Peter never showed up. He either got lost or had managed to find his way back to the Gryffindor tower. I was willing to bet on the former of those two possibilities.

"Where do you think we'll find him this time?" Remus sighed. This whole Peter getting lost all the time was getting really annoying.

"I dunno, maybe in the corridor near that troll statue." Peter had often gotten lost near the troll statue, he was terrified of it and it would apparently make him lose his mind. Remus and I had found him near that about five times.

"Do you think he could have found his way back to the tower?" asked Remus warily.

"I kind of doubt it, Peter doesn't have a very good track record with this kind of thing," I said as we turned a corner. "Do you hear that?" There was an odd wailing noise coming from down the hall.

"Yeah, do you think that it's Peter?"

"I'm almost certain that it is."

"Well, lets go find him," I said. We picked up the pace a little to get there faster.

Remus and I eventually found Peter a little further down that hall, this time he was stuck by the statue of an angry looking old woman with a long cape.

"Pete, what happened to you?" questioned Remus, inspecting the boy. Peter was literally stuck by the statue, part of one of his robes seemed to be actually stuck inside of the statue.

"I don't know!" he wailed. "One minute I was just leaning by the statue, the next there was an odd noise and then I was just stuck here!"

"Well, this is just fascinating," Remus said, looking along the area where Peter's robe was caught.

I walked around to the other side of the statue, looking for something, anything, that might help us. I looked around by the back part of the cape of the old lady's statue and noticed there appeared to be a line around it, like a little crack. "Remus, look at this."

Remus walked around to the side of the statue to stand beside me. "That's odd," he whispered, tapping it a few times. It definitely had a hollow sound to it. "Pete, what exactly did you do while leaning against the statue?"

"I don't know! I think… I think I started muttering to myself about pranks that Sirius and James pull," he sniffeled, still crying.

"What exactly did you say Pete? Try to remember the exact words," I said hurriedly.

"I-I think I-I s-said 'I hate it when they make me into a fool'!" Peter cried out. Just then, the cape of the old lady statue opened up.

"Move it Pete," I said shoving him away from the statue.

The three of us looked around at the statue, inspecting the cape and what was behind it. There appeared to be a dark tunnel that led out of the school.

"I wonder where it leads?" Peter said in awe, gazing into the tunnel.

"I don't know, but get your head out of there Peter," Remus said sternly, pulling Peter out of the statue. Suddenly it started sliding shut.

"That's just weird!" I whispered to Remus.

"We should probably get going," said Remus as he turned away from the odd statue. "I don't think we want to be caught by this and we especially don't want Sirius and James to know about it!"

"Don't want us to know about what?" asked James with a smirk on his face as he and Sirius came around a corner. They had obviously been up to no good.

"Uhh… Nothing!" I said desperately hoping that they would leave it alone.

"Come on, you can tell us. It's not like we haven't been looking for you three for hours," Sirius said, he had that smile on his face that had a bit of a begging look to it.

"Pete, you wouldn't keep a secret from us would you?" James asked, also begging. Both he and Sirius stared at Peter like a puppy would to guilt him into telling.

Peter looked to be on the verge of tears again, he had pretty much just stopped crying.

"Don't do it Pete," warned Remus. "Guys, why do you have to do this?" he said trying to turn the conversation away from Peter.

"Please," whispered James with a sad look.

"Fine! We found an odd tunnel behind the old lady statues cape!" Peter cried, giving into James and Sirius' begging.

"Really!" Sirius's face lit up with excitement.

"How do you get in there?" asked James, excitedly.

"You get in there by saying 'I hate it when the make me look like a fool'," Peter sobbed.

"Oh cool!" James and Sirius said simultaneously and they went to go and inspect the statue.

"You two have to promise me that you won't go in there," Remus begged.

"Don't worry Remey, we won't do anything stupid," replied James. "Lets go back up to the Common Room," said James, he gave Sirius a look that said that they would come back later. I didn't want them to do anything stupid or go into the statue either but the thought of where that secret passageway could lead excited me.

"Lets all just agree to keep this a secret," said Sirius, with one last glance at the statue.

"Agreed," the rest of us said.

I walked back to the Common Room next to Sirius, who was walking behind Remus and Peter. "If you two go back to that statue, count me in," I whispered to him. "I want to know where it goes too."

Sirius gave me a surprised look, this kind of sneaky thing wasn't really my kind of thing. "Don't worry," he said, "We wouldn't dream of leaving you out." Sirius grinned and elbowed James in the side. He whispered something to him and then James was grinning at me too.

"We've got a lot to plan," I had James murmur. This meant that we'd be meeting up in the Common Room after Remus and Peter went to bed. I had to admit to myself that I was excited about sneaking out of the Gryffindor Tower and the prospect of mischief and trouble. '_I hope I'm not becoming like James and Sirius_,' I thought to myself. I was a bit worried about what this would mean.


End file.
